MOBILE EYE CARE PROJECT

SOAR Mobile Eye Care Project will provide traveling vision care for all orphaned (institutionalized) children and to children and adults in remote villages across Armenia. SOAR is hoping to impact over 2,000 children and adults annually, targeting 40-50 patients per week. The advantages of a mobile eye care vehicle are fourfold. First, healthcare in Armenia’s residential childcare institutions is poor, as funding for state orphanages and boarding schools is limited. SOAR’s mobile eye care van would target those childcare institutions that house children with serious, but often neglected, medical issues. Second, providing care to homebound children and adults with disabilities reduces the burden of the caregiving family. Third, SOAR’s Mobile Eye Care Project will work in collaboration with the Armenian Eye Care Project (AECP). Because the quantity of remote villages is immense, SOAR and the AECP will work together to tackle more remote areas annually and to offer follow-up visits and examinations more frequently. Fourth, SOAR’s mobile eye care clinic will refer more serious cases to Yerevan, where consultant Dr. Artashes Zilfyan has offered to conduct all subsequent examinations and treatment free of charge. Transportation to Yerevan for all follow-up appointments will be provided by SOAR. Our mobile eye care clinic thus has the ability to not only remedy basic vision problems onsite but address serious eye care issues at no additional cost or inconvenience to the patients.